A photo released on Twitter by the former speaker of Puerto Rico’s lower house has sparked controversy in the U.S. territory. The photo showed the image of Rafael Cox Alomar, a black man running for the Puerto Rican resident commissioner, with the name of a local chimpanzee, Yuyo, who died last week, printed on top of Alomar’s face.
According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, former house speaker Ziada Hernandez released the image via Twitter, an act she vehemently denies.
“I started on twitter a week ago. I don’t know what the photo is about, and I haven’t seen it. I’m not capable of such a despicable act. I discuss my business right up front and strongly.”
Alomar credited the photo to “low politics,” and said the underhanded racism has no place in 21st century.
